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  <title>Using a different version of Ant</title>
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  <h1>Using a different version of Ant</h1>
  <p>The Eclipse platform provides a recent stable version of Ant as a plug-in library. The installed version of the
  org.apache.ant plug-in can be found in <b>Help &gt; About Eclipse &gt; Installation Details &gt; Plugins</b>. It is
  possible to use a different version of Ant, but other versions are not supported or guaranteed to work correctly.</p>
  <p>There are at least two different ways to use an alternate version of Ant in Eclipse:</p>
  <dl>
    <dt><b>Changing the Ant runtime classpath:</b></dt>
    <dd>
      When Ant runs a buildfile, it looks for the necessary classes on the Ant classpath. The Ant classpath consists of
      the plug-ins contributing new tasks, types or libraries, plus the classpath defined in the Ant runtime classpath
      preferences. To access the preferences, open the <a class="command-link" href=
      'javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.window.preferences(preferencePageId=org.eclipse.ant.ui.AntRuntimePreferencePage)")'>
      <img src="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="command link"> <b>Ant &gt; Runtime</b></a>
      preference page. The JARs related to Ant 1.7.1 are grouped under the <b>Ant Home Entries</b> item. To change the
      Ant Home entries, click on the <b>Ant Home...</b> button and choose the Ant installation you wish to use.
      <p>After you change the Ant classpath, all future Ant builds will use the updated version instead of the default.
      To restore the Ant classpath to its original state, <b>Restore Defaults</b> button on the preference page.</p>
    </dd>
    <dt><b>Using Ant as an external tool:</b></dt>
    <dd>
      When changing the Ant classpath is not an option, or if you just want to test a newer or beta version of Ant,
      using it as an external tool is an option. Usually when it is running in the Workbench, the Ant buildfile itself
      is considered to be a external tool, but this is not the only way. To install a binary distribution of Ant as an
      external tool (<b>Note:</b> These steps are for Windows, but similar methods can be used for other operating
      systems):
      <ol type="a">
        <li>Download and install the binary version of Ant from <a href="http://ant.apache.org" target=
        "_blank">http://ant.apache.org</a> .</li>
        <li>Click <a class="command-link" href=
        'javascript:executeCommand("org.eclipse.ui.externalTools.commands.OpenExternalToolsConfigurations")'><img src=
        "PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.help/command_link.svg" alt="command link"> <b>Run &gt; External Tools &gt; External
        Tools...</b></a>.</li>
        <li>Click <b>Program</b></li>
        <li>Click <b>New</b>.</li>
        <li>Enter a name for your external tool (for example, External Ant).</li>
        <li>For the <b>Location</b> field, click <b>Browse File System</b>.</li>
        <li>Find and select a file called <code>ant.bat</code> (it should be in the <code>bin</code> folder of your Ant
        installation).</li>
        <li>In the <b>Arguments</b> field enter the arguments for your buildfile that would normally enter for running
        the buildfile outside of the Workbench.</li>
        <li>In the <b>Working Directory</b> field enter the directory of your buildfile.</li>
        <li>Click <b>Run</b> to execute the buildfile.</li>
      </ol>
      <p>When you run Ant as an external tool, none of the tasks or types contributed by Eclipse will work. Also, the
      Ant classpath preference has no effect in the buildfile execution.</p>
    </dd>
  </dl>
  <h3 class="related">Related concepts</h3><a href="../concepts/concepts-antsupport.htm">Ant Support</a><br>
  <a href="../concepts/concepts-exttools.htm">External tools</a>
  <h3 class="related">Related tasks</h3><a href="./tasks-ant-running.htm">Running Ant buildfiles</a><br>
  <a href="../tasks/tasks-exttools-running.htm">Running external tools</a><br>
  <a href="../tasks/tasks-ant-classpath.htm">Modifying the Ant classpath</a><br>
  <a href="../tasks/tasks-ant-addtasksandtypes.htm">Adding new Ant tasks and types</a>
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